Recently: a photo post!

We went to the pumpkin patch.  And we found a huge red chair.

Some lovely, lovely friends were the best kind of company!

(Chelsie blogs!)

Spending time with my boys in the middle of fall... it's perfection.

Also, I got to photograph my brother and his beautiful fiance, Jackie.

Ah, sweet love.

I'll get back to my story soon.  I just couldn't resist sharing the latest fun!

Autumnal Bliss

I've missed ushering in the start of fall with you guys.
(Actually, here in the South, I'd say ya'll, but the rhyming was just too much.)

I feel like I'm just coming up for air after a couple of weeks of full on, all encompassing parenting.
I've missed you, I've missed myself, but that teething, sick, newly-independent baby needed every one of my moments.
Yesterday, things started to turn around for my poor little guy, and we sat on the swings...
His head on my chest, my feet pumping.
Watching a Carolina sunset, reveling in the change of seasons, the crisp air tingling into my skin.

I am starting to love the fall more than I ever have.
The old is gone, making way for the new, the blooming, the reborn, every year.
And His grace is sufficient, and I am a new creature, my spirit refreshed.
And I lift my head to surrender to the giving and taking away, the endings and the beginnings.

My arms and my emotions and my eyelids are tired, but my heart is thankful for the reminder of the cycle, the process, the death, and the bringing of newness, of freshness, of life.

•••

With the coming of fall, I've become kind of thrilled to decorate, since we are finally in a house all our own this year.

My sweet friend Chelsie is making some gorgeous wreaths just in time for the new season.

She's selling them HERE, and you should get in on the goods.

•••

Happy, happy fall, lovely friends.
Let it happen... let the endings come, embrace the process.
New life is waiting on the other side.

Valentines Weekend and Date Night with Densons

1. Valentine's weekend was wonderful!  Billy surprised me and took me to a Bed & Breakfast downtown, which I have always wanted to do.  We ate at Fleet Landing, which is where we ate the night we got engaged!  And then, we went to Kaminsky's in the snow.  It was the best Valentine's ever.  We actually celebrated on Friday night, but I'm so glad that we did because it snowed!  I know that everyone in Charleston felt as if it were their gift, but that night, I felt as if it were mine.  We had such a fun time!  The Bed & Breakfast was really cute, and it had a community-ish feel that we weren't sure about, but ended up really liking it because we were together.  Being married is the best!


2. On Thursday night (Feb. 18) we had Robbie and Chelsie Denson over.  Chelsie came over early while Robbie and Billy went to a meeting at church.  Chelsie and I cooked our wonderful, semi-gourmet meal, and almost everything turned out beautifully!  The guys loved it, and that made it even better!  We made zucchini, which wasn't wonderful, but alright; honey-orange chicken breasts, which were so good; twice-baked potatoes, which took forever to cook, but were so worth it; and a chocolate chess pie, which ended up looking like a chocolate mess pie, but Chelsie and I still blame it on the pan, and maybe the fact that we forgot an ingredient!  Either way, it was so fun.  Also, after our meal, Billy and Robbie worked on de-clogging our sink (that I clogged - oops!), and they did it! It was so gross, and they were so proud of themselves, as were we.  It was great to have them over and to get to cook with Chelsie, and even greater that the guys cleaned up after we cooked![gallery link="file" columns="2"]